It Smells a Little Bit

Not about racism (for the record, the intimation Willie “played the race card” is a joke — he just raised the issue, as is his right to do), but about the fact that something stinks around here.

The Randolph Era is beginning to look like another mangerial tenure destined to end unhappily and soon, and that’s a shame: While I’ve never been a great Willie fan I feel terrible about how the fans (and players… and some journalists) have been treating him. I admire his iconoclasm and desire to be dignified: It’s just that this team isn’t lending itself to either end. We don’t need tortured interpretations of pinch-running tendencies and pretend outrage based on willfull misinterpretation of since retratcted quotes (complete with the “I-can’t-believe-I-used-to-idolize-this-guy” piling on). The team is at sea, and it doesn’t appear that Randolph is capable of rallying them to greater success anymore.
If he’s lost the team, that’s when he goes, and no sooner.

That job won’t be easier now that Moises Alou is out injured again. The Mets on Thursday recalled Raul Casanova from AAA New Orleans to take his spot on the roster.

Interesting factoid about Mike Piazza: He was assigned No. 31 in Los Angeles when it became available following Roger McDowell‘s switch from 31 to 17. McDowell, the former Met, switched to 17so as to honor his ex-Met teammate Keith Hernandez. Hernandez, of course, wore 17 in New York because 37 — his number in St. Louis — had been retired for Casey Stengel (and 7, 27 and 47 were already issued).

That means that 17 and 31 — the numbers considered most likely for potential retirementfor the Mets — can be directly traced to the first number the team retired.

One comment

Submitted by Gene F. (not verified) on Sat, 05/24/2008 – 7:22am.
They have to find a number for Nick Evans, coming to the Mets straight outta Bingo. Evans was wearing 24, but if the Mets want to help put a lid on Gary Carter’s self promotion for the manager’s job they should put Evans in 8. Think Kid would get that message?

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Awesome idea. I was just

Submitted by Jon Springer on Sat, 05/24/2008 – 7:56am.
Awesome idea. I was just writing about that!

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Issuing no. 8 to Evans would

Submitted by gored82 on Sat, 05/24/2008 – 8:47pm.
Issuing no. 8 to Evans would have been disgraceful… Personally, I have no problem with the Kid being ambitious… nobody’s forcing Mets management to hire him, although the way the team has played over the last 150 games or so, Carter couldn’t do any worse than Randolph, so maybe it’s not such a crazy idea…

Moreover, any individual or group of fans dislike or distaste for Carter is no reason for the club to hand out his uni number to the next Joe Shmoe off the bus from the bush leagues…what a ridiculous idea!

I was, and still am, as big a Gary Carter fan as anyone, and I was thrilled when he made the Hall of Fame. Whether you like Willie Randolph or not what Carter did this week was not ambitious, it was selfish and totally disrespectful to Randolph.

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I don’t see why being in the

Submitted by Ranjrz5 on Sun, 05/25/2008 – 12:40pm.
I don’t see why being in the HOF means that #8 should be retired… #24 isn’t retired either and I think Mays meant more to NY than Carter. I don’t think there’s really anything wrong with Carter wanting the Mets to know that he’d like to be considered if they make a change. However, why tell the media about it? What purpose is that going to serve? Reminds me of his campaigning when he was up for the HOF.

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I’m not sure 8 should be

Submitted by gored82 on Sun, 05/25/2008 – 12:48pm.
I’m not sure 8 should be retired, as Carter played just 5 years for the Mets, and was pretty bad the last 2…it would be a bit like the number-retiring ho’ Yankees retiring 44 for Reggie Jackson…Carter doesn’t stack up for number retirement with Keith Hernandez, Piazza, Gooden, Mookie, and Davey Johnson…